INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND NESTLE INDIA LTD

Nestle India Limited (NIL) is the Indian subsidiary of the global FMCG major, Nestle SA. Nestle India Ltd. Introduced Maggi Brand to the Indian consumers with the launch of Maggi 2 Minute Noodles, an instant food product, in 1982. With the launch of Maggi noodles, Nestle India Ltd. created an entirely new food category - instant noodles - in the Indian packaged food market. Nestl, which world knows as cautious and conservatory company is a Swiss originated 140 years old Multinational. The man at the helm is Swiss national Carlo Donati, an all inspiration and image of the company. His philosophy isbottom line dictating top line based on delegation and decentralization. It resulted from a merger in 1905 between the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company for milk products established in 1866 by the Page Brothers in Cham, Switzerland and the Farine Lacte Henri Nestl Company set up in 1867 by Henri Nestl to provide an infant food product. Nestl Indias business objective and that of its management and employees is to manufacture and market the Companys products in such a way as to create value that can be sustained over the long term for consumers, shareholders, employees, business partners. The product mix of Nestle India consists of milk products and baby products (42.5%),beverages (29.3 %), processed foods (14.4 %), chocolate and confectionary (13.8 %).Nestle India plans to expand business into similar and diversified product categories. With an Employee strength of over 3000 and turnover of US$ 497 million in 2003, Nestle India is one of the leading companies in the FMCG space in India. The company is acknowledged among Indias most respected companies and among the top Wealth Creators of India.

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THE COMPANYS HISTORY

Year 1870 The Swiss Julius Michal Johannes Maggi (1846-1912) inherited the family business: a mill in Kemptal, near Zurich. Year 1886 Several women were factory workers, thus the time available for housework and the preparation of meals was considerably reduced, and working class families suffered from poor nutrition. In view of this state of affairs, the doctor Schuler recommended the wide use of dried vegetables: peas and beans, given their rich nutritive value. Julius Maggi produced appliances for roasting and grinding these vegetables, to make flour from peas, beans, lentils etc., and enabling housewives to make a quick nourishing soup. Year 1900 At the Universal Exhibition, Maggi won several medals and grand prizes. Jules Magi set up home in Paris. The French head office was on the Placede lOpra, and the factory on the Boulevard Arago. Maggi now had depositories in Paris, Berlin, Singen (Germany), Vienna and Bregenz (Austria). A number of advertising texts written by Franck Wedekind had strong military undertones: Year 1947 Maggi merged with the Nestle India firm.

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Year 1948 Sopad took over from Nestle to handle production and marketing for Nestle and Maggi products in France. Maggi now had eleven factories throughout the world. Year 1982 Nestle India Ltd. Introduced Maggi to the Indian consumers with the launch of Maggi 2 Minute Noodles, an instant food product, in 1982. With the launch of Maggi noodles, Nestle India Ltd. created an entirely new food category -instant noodles - in the Indian packaged food market. Year 1984 Eating habits changed, and Maggi adjusted their products, with low fat Bouillons, Bouquet Garni ("a little extra to add taste and give your dishes a festive look!"), and "Soupes Moulines", a new line to add to their "Soup Time" range. The ad announcing the new "Maggi souffl mix" had two sections: on the "BEFORE" page, a man disguised as a oriental wise man levitates a magnificent ouffl, on the "AFTER" page, the same man holds the Maggi sachet in his hands "The magic formula to a successful souffl!"

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BRAND STORY
Launched in 5 flavors initially Masala, chicken, Capsicum, sweet & sour, and Lasagna Maggi had to fight hard to be accepted by Indian consumers with their hard-to-change eating habits. The packaged food market was very small at this time, Nestle had to promote noodles as a concept, before it could promote Maggi as a brand. It therefore devised a two-pronged strategy to attract motherson the convenience plank and lure kids on the fun plank. Gradually ,the market for instant noodles began to grow. The company also decided to focus on promotions to increase the brand awareness. In the initial years, Nestle promotional activities for Maggi included schemes offering gifts (such as toys and utensils) in return for empty noodles pack. According to analyses the focus on promotion turned out to be the single largest factor responsible for Maggis rapid acceptance. Nestles Managers utilized promotions as measured to meet their sales target. Gradually ,sales promotion became a crutch for Maggi noodles sales. Later manyof the Maggis extensions also made considerable use of promotional schemes. The focus of all Maggis extensions was more on below the line activities rather than direct communication. In addition to promotional activities, Maggi associated itself with mainstream television programme and advertised heavily on kids programme and channels. After its advertisements with taglines likemummi bhookh lagi hai,bas do minute and fast to cook good to eat Maggis popularity became highly attributed to its extremely high appeal to children. As aresult, Maggis annual growth reportedly touched 15% during its initial years.

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MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES 4Ps EVALUATION

Price
Considering the price points in the market for maggi, it should continue to position itself in the Snacks. Affordable by all income groups Differentiated packaging Lower price point strategy Millipack for Rs.5 Targetting the lower middle class as well as those who want to consume in lesser quantity. Inflation effect on volume than price - Reduction of 100gm pack to 95gm, keeping price as Rs. 10 only .Place Wide distribution network. Limited penetration in rural areas. The company has a complex supply chain process . Target hawkers/roadside eating joints The distribution network is well spread Easily available in all kirana stores, retail store etc. Sales territories, Warehousing system. Multi packs at cheaper price per noodles Healthier products at higher price.

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Product
Quality Models and sizes Packing Brands Service

Promotion
Nestle also followed up these launches with Its different ad campaigns. Nestle was focusing their ads based on childrens taste and health. In addition to promotional activities, Maggi associated itself with mainstream television programme and advertised heavily on kids programme and channels. Maggi is now targeting its products at the entire family and not only kids. Maggi has recently launched MAIN AUR MERI MAGGI campaign in commensuration of 25 years of Maggi in India.

Packaging (Often referred as 5th P)

Many consumers are not aware of the fact that packaging contributes substantially to our current standards of living. Its state-of-the-art packaging that has made certain items conveniently available to the general public and easy to handle. In the past hundred or so years, the demands producers and consumers place on packaging have developed significantly. While initially the transportation and protection of goods were the primary functions served by packaging, today, it also acts as a branddefining marketing instrument as well as an innovative and practical shell with evernew advantages for consumers
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Contemporary 21st century industrialized societies survive on a diet of the many, highly popular TV cooking series. At the same time, the number of pre-cooked, easily manageable dishes in which packaging plays a pivotal role is growing increasingly in retail outlets. Whether discounter or gourmet store, all retailers know the value of convenience. And convenience is made possible by sophisticated, market-oriented packaging solutions, which often merely need to be popped in the oven or microwave, contents and all, before serving.

Packaging innovations can be seen from two varying perspectives, one wherein in
adds to the basic functionality of the product through providing additional benefit to the consumers and second would be when it enables trials and increased usage by virtue of pack size (small). Expected product benefit is proper packaging to ensure customers a good quality, fully packed seasoning tastemaker at affordable price. The beliefs associated with a brand constitute the brand image, and the customer may have uninformed beliefs which are likely to generate a negative image about the brand. The marketer must ensure that consumers have all relevant and correct information about the brand to facilitate formation of a positive brand image. Certain beliefs develop dare neutral and are more dependent on the situation or circumstances of purchase or usage of the product.

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BRAND STRATEGY IMC

INTEGRATED MASS COMMUNICATION

ADVERTISING

PUBLIC RELATION

SALES PROMOTION

INTERACTIVE MARKETING

ADS

AD CAMPAIGN

BILLBOARDS

PRINT ADS

TV ADS

OTHER

It is integration of all marketing tools, approached and resources within a company which maximizes impact on consumer mind and which results into maximum profit at minimum cost.

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Promotional tools of communication

Initial Strategies of Maggi: Maggi has faced lot of hurdles in its journey in india The basic problem the brand faced is the Indian psyche

Initially Nestle tried to position Maggi in the platform of convenience targeting the
workingwomen. However, the sales of maggi was not picking up despite of heavy media advertising. To overcome this Nestle conducted a research. Nestle promotion positioning the magi product as a convenience product for mother and as a fun product for children. The maggi Tagline, Fast To Cook Good To Eat was also in keeping with its positioning. They promoted the product further by distributing free samples. Giving gifts on return of empty packets, etc. Effective Tagline Communication.

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Different communication media used by Maggi

TV Ads:Initially maggi was targeted at the workingwomen and later the upper middle class kids. Maggi was a sponsor for Hum Log, a popular television show on Doordarshan, Indias sole channel in 1984. Maggi is now targeting its products at the entire family and not only kids. Maggi has recently launched Main Aur Meri Maggi campaign in commensurate of 25yrs of maggi in India.

Print Ads: Maggi does not focus heavily on print media. During its launch since its initial target audience was mother and kids. Some adv in the print media were used to highlight the convenience factor of maggi. Recently maggi came out with advertisements in some weekly magazines for its new atta noodles and rice noodles varients. Maggi rice noodles mania had the highest column centimeter in print among the instant food category. Growth in noodles/pasta print advertisement grew by 42% share in 2010.Maggis expenditure on print media is much lower compared to other media.

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Sales Promotion: To introduce new products To attract new customer and retain the existing ones To maintain sales of seasonal products To meet challenge of competition tools Exchange schemes Price Off offer Scratch and win offer

Discount offered to retailers: 7%discount on 6-piece pack (56MRP), 5 rupee discount on 8-piece pack(78MRP). These are promotional schemes given to retailers. Magg i is coming up with schemes like giving one soup pack with 8-piece pack. Inpast company had promotional schemes like 4 piece pack with that ofRs.36 instead of Rs.40.

Display: Large pack sizes at the top with decreasing pack sizes as going downward. This is because that for a retail outlet the more value is generated large pack thus they try to project big size at convenience place.

Public Relation: The Maggi Club the children under 14 were invited by press adv and distribution of leaflets to become a member of maggi club any sending logos cut from 5 empty maggi wrappers. Maggi projected it as maggi clubbers are fun lovers and intended to use it as reference group. Benefit offered tomaggi- clubbers are various games like snap safari game, Cap and masksets, travel india game, Disney today comic. To obtain each gift themember has to send 5 wrappers as
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purchase proof. Some special privilegeswere given to regular members time to time like, discounting tickets ofAppughar. Organisation maggi school quizzes and sketching.

Result of PR Activity: Getting closer to regular customer boosted the sales. Making valuable direct marketing database. Recently, again, they have started maggi fan club. This time it is operating online and they are provided user name and password.

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SALES AND MARKETING CHANNEL

Marketing channels
The focus of our market channel analysis is limited to culinary products, asmaggi falls under this product category. Customer upper and middle class family Strategic intent selling and promotion form the strategic intent for this distribution channel Channel Type Maggi followed a market type channel for its culinary products

Marketing Channel Strategy: A hybrid strategy involving both a push as well as a pull strategy is used by maggi. The push strategy employed through setting targets at various levels of the distribution channel and a pull strategy is exercised through aggressive advertising and in store promotion

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.Marketing Channel flows: Following are the different marketing flows in Maggi marketing channel Physical Goods flow Information Flow Payment Flow Promotion Flow Title Flow

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MARKET PENETRATION STRATEGIES

Maggi started with promotional campaigns in the school to see the reaction of children after eating Maggi. Started their advertising straight focusing on kids. Introduced new products like atta noodles dal atta noodles cuppa mania. Products are made available in different packages like 50,100,200,400 Gms. Keep on conducting market research to understand changes in market.

Though Maggi has been successful every time, there were times when it faced challenges. Some of these are: Sales saw decline in 1990: The Company saw a decline in the sales in 1990. When the company tried to find out what the reason was, they came to know that there was some thing wrong with the formula that spoiled the taste. So the formula was changed from fried base to oiled dried base Competition increased in noodle segment: When Maggi was enjoying being the only noodle offering by any company Top ramen entered the market as a competition. This was a big challenge for Maggi. Though Top Ramen couldnt do well in India.

New product launched in market but failed- Nestle decided to expand its offerings by offering Dal atta noodles & Sambhar flavor noodles. But these products were not welcomed by the people the very special taste of Maggi was still ruling the consumer

Maggi launched some new products: Ketchups, Soups, Taste makers etc. but they were not successful.

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TASTE AND PREFERENCES OF CONSUMERS

Health is the flavor of the season. Food companies in India are growing aware of the increasingly changing consumption trends and taste preferences among the Indian junta. No surprises, but this is the reason more and more companies are coming up (or are actually remarketing) with products that are healthy. Take for example Coke and Pepsi; both have already started looking into the non-carbonated drinks category section. Maggi first introduced in the market Maggi Atta Noodles which it claimed was a healthy food as it was made of wheat flour followed by soups. Nestle India, in an effort to carry on with its trend of providing the Indian consumers healthy food recently introduced a range of Healthy Soups. The entire range consists of the following; maggi tomato, mixed vegetable, tomato vegetable ,mushroom, chicken, sweet corn chicken and hot and sour vegetable. The product is priced at Rs 25 for 70 grams .Maggi became successful because it understood consumers . The brand never wanted to change Indian consumers habit. It did not had ambitions about changing Indians breakfast or dinner preferences. What Maggi did was to slowly attach itself to Indian consumers need without disruption .Maggi was also closely watching consumer preferences. When consumers wanted healthy food, Maggi launched Atta Noodle variants that was healthy . More importantly this move addressed the concerns of Homemakers. The brand extended itself to multiple segment but without diluting the core brand equity . Maggi over these years have made lot of mistakes. It made mistakes because the brand was willing to experiment. More importantly the brand learned from those mistakes and corrected itself .Maggi also invested heavily in brand building. The campaigns for one of Maggis
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products were always there in the media which kept the brand fresh in the mind ofthe consumers. Maggi personifies the basic principles of understanding consumers ,innovating and investing in the brand . Maggi is one packaged food brand that has only seen its popularity grow in the past many years and the secret to the success is that instead of trying to change thefood habits of consumers, it has tried to align itself with local tastes and preferences with the fast to cook and good to eat promise. To commemorate its successful journey through a quarter of a century in the worlds largest consumer market, the brand, last year, launched an innovative campaign inviting its loyalists to share with it their Maggi stories and promised to broad cast them to the world at large, thereby, making them the superstars overnight. Along with television commercials, which aired individual consumer stories of their lasting memories of Maggi, the brand displayed pictures of these loyal customers on the Maggi packs. Nestle also introduced a website Me and meri maggi in for engaging with them. The company also rewarded its consumers by adding to the Maggi portfolio, thathitherto had sauces and soups in various flavors, a range of prepared dishes andcooking aids such as Maggi Bhuna Masala and Maggi Pazzta. So far focussed on urban consumers, the company also made a pitch for rural consumers by launching Maggi Rasile Chow noodles at an inviting price of Rs4. Again, local tastes andrecipes have been at the core of all these marketing innovations.Creating delight and happiness in everyday meals is not just about providing tasty food. It is about providing taste and health in a convenient combination, says Shivani Hegde, general manager, foods.

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DEMOGRAPHY AND PSYCHOGRAPHY OF CONSUMERS

Demography: 1) Age and sex: people of different age groups consume Maggi products. Children, teenagers, adults as well as old people consume them. Both genders male and female consume them. 2) Income: - Maggi products are available at reasonable prices. So the lower, middle as well as the higher class consume them. 3) Religion and nationality: - Maggi products are famous and are consumed by people of all religions and nationality.

Psychography: 1) Attitude: - Consumers of maggi have a positive attitude towards the product, which makes it the leader in the market. Maggi dominates the market. 2) Lifestyle:- Lifestyle determines the way of living of people. It describes how a consumer leads his life. All consumes Maggi products.

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CONCLUSION
The food processing business in India is at a nascent stage. Currently, only about10% of the output is processed and consumed in packaged form thus highlighting huge potential for expansion and growth. Traditionally, Indians believe in consuming fresh stuff rather then packaged or frozen, but the trend is changing and the new fast food generation is slowly changing. Riding on the success of noodles, Nestle India, tried to make extensions of the Maggi brand to a number of products like, sauces, ketchups, pickles, soups, taste makers and macaroni in the mid-1990s. Unfortunately, the macaroni and pickles didnt pick up as expected. The soups and sauces did somewhat fine, gathering considerable sales volumes and have a satisfactory presence even today. Maggi Noodles itself faced a bit of difficulty with respect to taste, and nearly lost its position in the minds of Indian consumers in the late 1990s. When Nestle changed the formulation of its tastemaker, the ominous packet that came along with Maggi Noodles, a major chunk of consumers were put-off and sales started dropping. Also, Maggis competitor Top Ramen took advantage of the situation and started a parallel aggressive campaign to eat into Maggis market share. Butthe company quickly realised this and went back into making the original formula coupled with a free sampling campaign. This helped Maggi to win back its lost consumers and pushed up its sales volumes again!

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Newspapers and Magazines Economic Times Brand Equity Supplement 4Ps of Marketing Magazine Marketing Today Magazine

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WEBLIOGRAPHY
www.nestle.in www.maggi-club.in www.indianjournalofmarketing.com www.careerdynamo.com/marketing_journals.html

www.wikipedia.com

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